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Lamb in Love [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Carrie Brown (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)


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Hardcover $21.95  
Hardcover, Large Print, December 1999 --  
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Audio, Cassette, Unabridged $74.95  

Book Description

December 1999
In the tiny English village of Hursley, two lifelong acquaintances have never given each other a second glance. Until, on the very night of man's first moon landing, a precipitous passion alights on their middle-aged existence. Out for a stroll, Norris Lamb--postmaster, stamp collector, and church organist--spies spinster Vida Stephen dancing with glorious, uncharacteristic abandon by the moonlit fountain of the mansion where she tends the mute, retarded son of an absent employer. Norris senses a buried bravado and romance, a fragility and loneliness, that match his own. And he sets out, covertly, to woo her.

But both Norris and Vida are innocents in this endeavor. His courtship blunders down many wrong turns before it finds its unlooked-for catalyst in Manford, the gentle young man who is Vida's charge...and blossoms as a force to change three lives.

In luminous prose laced with quiet humor, Lamb in Love shows how love transforms the most ordinary and imperfect mortals.


Vida, unaware that Norris is in the throes of a wild--but unvoiced--passion, must herself decide whether to remain in the small English village where she has lived her entire life, or strike out on her own in search of a grand adventure.

Watching these two people surprised by love is Manford, the young disabled man who has been in Vida's charge for the last twenty years.  Possessed of a strange and gentle intelligence, it is through Manford that Norris and Vida finally come to recognize each other and themselves. Heartwarm- ing, madcap, utterly beautiful, LAMB IN LOVE celebrates the strange and mysterious brilliance that is love.  And it confirms Carrie Brown's status as an important and luminous talent. -->
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

True love comes crashing into Norris Lamb's life for the first time on his 55th birthday, the summer night in 1969 when man first walked on the moon. In Brown's (Rose's Garden) pellucid second novel, it is clear which of the two events is more earth-shattering. The hapless Norris, reconciled to bachelor life as the venerable postmaster of Hursley, a small town in the English countryside, has known Vida Stephen since childhood. Now 43, kind-hearted Vida has been a devoted nanny to mute, retarded Manford Perry, the motherless son of a generally absent architect father, since his birth 20 years ago. On the auspicious night when the Apollo astronauts explore the moon's surface, Norris glimpses the nearly naked Vida dancing in the moonlight around a fountain, and his life is forever altered. A shy, unassuming man, his dilemma now is how to best express his newfound feelings. Brown eloquently explores the terrain of human interactions, showing how genuine love can exalt ordinary individuals; her work is distinguished, above all, by her talent for investing them with dignity. Most touching is her portrayal of Vida's tenderness and dedication to her disabled charge, as he suffers unintended insults from the small-minded people who ignore or disdain a handicapped person. In contrast, the surpassingly effortless way Norris and Manford take to each other illustrates Brown's obvious belief in the transcendent possibilities inherent in simple acts of thoughtfulness and compassion. The quiet humor in her characterizations of the villagers and her bemused understanding of small-town life invest the narrative with a quiet authority. This warmhearted and moving story could be a sleeper. Author tour. (Apr.) FYI: Bantam will release Rose's Garden in April.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Norris Lamb is in his 50s and has lived all his life in a small English village, taking over as postmaster and church organist from his mother after her death. Vida Stephen, in her early 40s and a native of the same village, has cared for Manford, the mentally disabled and mute son of the owner of the local estate, since he was an infant. Manford is now 20, and Vida has never had a holiday. And nothing would seem to suggest that anything is likely to change until Vida, captivated by the idea of men on the moon as she watches the landing on television, is drawn to the estate's garden to dance (naked) in the moonlight. Norris, out for his nightly walk, sees Vida and is "struck" (he actually thinks of it as a physical force) by love for her and sets out to show her, in small ways, that she has an admirer. This beautifully simple and eloquently written love story reminds the listener that even the simplest of lives are often very complex. Brown takes the time to develop all her characters, showing the special qualities of each--including Manford. David Rintoul's reading succeeds in expressing verbally all the nuances presented in the author's prose: Norris's yearning, Vida's love for Manford, and the eccentricities of the inhabitants of a small village in which everyone knows everyone else. Highly recommended for all collections.
-Melody A. Moxley, Rowan P.L., Salisbury, NC
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 411 pages
  • Publisher: Wheeler Publishing (December 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1568957327
  • ISBN-13: 978-1568957326
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,935,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

20 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An Absolute Delight!, November 24, 1999
This review is from: Lamb in Love: A Novel (Hardcover)
I just finished Lamb in Love and wish that I hadn't! I will miss spending time in the little English village of Hursley getting to know Norris Lamb and Vida and Manford and all the other characters in this charming and poignant novel about hope and courage. Beautifully written with humour and warmth I found myself alternately laughing out loud and welling up with tears. A wonderful and true snapshot of the magic and drama of "ordinary lives" told with compassion and wit. A memorable book - don't miss a trip to Hursley!
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars WHIMSICAL AND HEARTWARMING - BEAUTIFULLY DONE!, September 1, 2001
This review is from: Lamb in Love (Paperback)
The golden promise of Carrie Brown's debut novel, Rose's Garden (1998) is more than fulfilled with Lamb In Love, an affecting tale of two very ordinary people transformed by the power of love.
Choosing Hursley, a small English village as her setting, Ms. Brown again writes with eloquent grace in spare, prismatic prose - an intriguing glint here, a revealing glimmer there as she artfully sketches the emotional terrain of her characters.
Fifty-five year old Norris Lamb is the village postmaster, a position he undertakes with the utmost respect and solemnity, viewing the mails as "a marvelous system of common trust," keeping "his postal scales highly polished," and employing "a new rubber stamp frequently so as to avoid smudges."
He is also a philatelist, the volunteer organist for St. Alphage,, and a self-described "...stick whom his neighbors consider a confirmed bachelor. Terrified of women, perhaps? [....](So careful with his appearance, etc.)"
But then, on the night of the 1969 American moon landing when Norris walked outside to get a closer look at the galaxy, he saw an even more remarkable sight - 41-year-old Vida Stephen dancing nearly naked in a garden. Norris had known her all his life, "But he'd never seen her like that before. He'd never seen anything like that before." And, quite suddenly, "He is Norris Lamb in love. Lamb in love."
Vida lives at Southend House, a derelict mansion, where for twenty years she has served as nanny for Manford Perry, a retarded young man who is also mute. His mother dead and his architect father often gone, Manford is totally dependent upon Vida who is devoted to him. Never having had a holiday or ventured far beyond Hursley, the routine of Vida's life is relieved only by letters from her one living relative, Uncle Laurence, who lives on Corfu, a seemingly unbelievably beautiful locale of which she can only dream.
Old enough now to be considered a spinster, Vida is viewed by fellow villagers with pity.
"But Norris knows - he believes he alone knows - what is there to be rescued and revived. He imagines that he sees what others, lacking the wondrous prism of his passion, cannot."
The question that torments him is how he will win her.
Unable to declare himself in person, Norris enjoins fellow postmasters to help him - he pens love letters which are posted to Vida from foreign lands. He leaves bouquets of flowers on a bench that she frequents. Finally, he ventures beyond Hursley, to Winchester where he buys Vida a gift - a nightdress an intricately patterned robe of Oriental silk.
Norris finds himself emboldened by love. Not allowing "reason to interfere with the anticipation of adventure, even danger, that accompanies the matter of delivering his gift," he sneaks into Southend House and artfully arranges the robed gown on her bed.
At first puzzled then frightened by these unfamiliar attentions, Vida confides to Norris that she feels stalked. He is desolate, "utterly undone." Later thinking, "Oh, you're a bungler, Norris Lamb. Nothing but a bungler. Go on, step aside. Give it up. She won't look twice at you!"
But look twice she does, and in an unexpected way.
With a warmly wise and uplifting denouement, Carrie Brown reminds us of love's transcendency and the unquenchable strength of hope. A writer with luminous gifts, not the least of which is a painterly attention to detail, Ms. Brown has imbued the heartwarming Lamb In Love with whimsy, passion, and noble spirit
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars How Did I Miss This?, September 29, 2000
This review is from: Lamb in Love (Paperback)
I don't know how I missed this lovely book when it was first published! American author Carrie Brown has done a masterful job of portraying life and love in a small English village far removed from the hustle and bustle of London.

Brown has populated her novel, set in 1969, with a cast of endearing, lovely, yet "odd" characters. Norris Lamb, 55, the village postmaster, falls in love with Vida Stephen, the 41-year-old caretaker for Manford Perry, a young man who is both mute and retarded. Vida has cared for Manford for 20 years in the absence of his wealthy American father, who travels most of the time.

How Norris falls suddenly in love with someone he has known all his life is told in loving detail by the author. This is a slow, engaging, delightful book without the silly conflicts or sickeningly sweet narrative of modern romances.

The way in which Vida cares for Manford, and her fears, compassion, and aspirations for him, are portrayed in a totally captivating manner. When Norris becomes a part of their lives, you will be touched by his actions toward both Vida and Manford. Norris' bumbling attempts at love are so endearing. As he said to himself:"I have a gift for being in love, but there are technical difficulties".

I highly recommend this book.

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First Sentence:
SOMETIMES, WHEN HE is hiding behind the horse chestnut and spying on Vida, Norris dares to lean slightly to the east and watch for Manford. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Southend House, Romsey Road, Norris Lamb, Carrie Brown, Vida Stephen, Miss Stephen, Prince's Mead, Miss Ferry, Niven's Bakery, Terry Lamb, South Africa, Thomas Perry
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